Recce

Through its 1985 acquisition of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, HdH has become a highly diversified aerospace company that not only manufactures components for some of the world’s largest aviation concerns but also has its own highly advanced engine group. An ideal springboard now exists for Hawker’s to be able to launch into the world of collaborative ventures via its recently announced associate partnerships aboard the Boeing 7J7 and Airbus A330/340 programmes.

The problem though, and this is not just a problem for our aerospace industry but one that should eat at the heart of all Australians who wish to see this nation climb out from what is approaching banana republic status, is that there is virtually no intention of government support for either project.

Times are tough, that is for sure, but we continue to follow the one way street towards mediocrity as our State and Federal governments continue to employ ever larger armies of public servants, promote and develop often unpopular social service schemes (that do nothing towards making people more independent of welfare) and play host to every non productive minority group that calls for public funding.

What the Australian aerospace industry needed and still needs (refer to Reece, Nov 86 AA) is a loan in the order of $100/150 million spread over seven to nine years. Seen in that light, this level of funding should not have been an overly large financial burden, particularly as much of it would not come online till year three or four of the period in question. A grant of this nature would get HdH (and a host of other Australian aerospace affiliated companies) its 2-4% share of the Boeing 7J7 programme, a similar level of share on the potential large (due to the aircraft’s per unit value) Airbus A330/340 programmes in addition to some form of collaborative arrangement with MOH and China on a future light helo.

The problem now is that while Hawker’s can raise much of the venture finance themselves to get aboard the Boeing 7J7 project, without our government committing itself financially, it will make it extremely difficult for any company to be able to raise sufficient private sector funding to make the deal economically viable in the long term due to the amount of interest to be repaid. In short, what we are saying is that if the government had promised $1 OOm for Australian industry, then HdH (as an industry leader in its field) would then be able to gain the extra funding required to achieve a sizeable workload that would do much to transform our aerospace industrial sector over the coming decades. Without this low-interest, long-term repayable government funding, HdH, and others like it will not be able to accept the high commercial rates over such a long period of time. In short, the key to long-term success lies in properly managed government funding, just like in France, Britain, Canada, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, West Germany, Spain, Holland and dozens of other nations that appreciate that to be a technologically advanced country you have to promote and support your high tech industries or perish. Australia’s Federal Government exhorts us to achieve great things on the international stage but at the same time denies Australian high-tech industries the opportunity much of the time to achieve this success through lack of development funding. A nation MUST spend on research and development in order to remain competitive. Australians have over the decades produced some of the world’s most exciting and commercially successful inventions yet in almost all cases they have gone overseas as no government here (regardless of its political colour) ever had either the fortitude or foresight to back its own people.

So where does this leave us today?

Hawker’s are presently negotiating with both Airbus and Boeing on defining appropriate work packages on both the above-mentioned programmes. Hopefully, during the course of this issue more will be known as to what extent we will be able to join with them. Hawker’s are also well down the road, with discussions on the PC-12 light transport with Pilatus in addition to the ongoing discussions with McDonnell Douglas Helicopters and the Chinese on collaboration on a new light helicopter. In the meantime, the offsets continue to roll in thanks to a new sharpened teeth offsets policy and our highly competitive export dollar. Also, across the factory fence from Hawker de Havilland Victoria Ltd lies the newly formed, and hopefully more productive, remains of the Government Aircraft Factories, now better known as Aerospace Technologies of Australia. ATA, with its newly appointed and highly respected board is set to make quite a few announcements through the coming year, IF they too can attract some measure of government venture finance. A 50/50 partnership in an all new light helo (refer Rotor Torque, this issue) and perhaps a revised and greatly updated version of the Nomad are on offer. Additionally, ATA has some of the finest autoclaves and composite and metal bonding facilities in the world. With its new management, let’s hope that it too can aggressively gain the work that it should have had years ago but for its predilection for nineteenth-century work practices and blinkered management. The nineteen seventies almost decimated the Australian aerospace industry. Today, that industry is gearing up to join the world’s finest aircraft manufacturers to develop some of the most technologically advanced airliners ever built. That same industry though MUST have some form of government loan assistance as the immediate commercial rewards on such high tech programmes are simply not compatible with the day-to-day private sector finance environment. Every other advanced nation does it – why can’t we?